A typical ribbon switch 101 is illustrated in isometric cross section in FIG. 1(a). The switch has a bead 101a protruding from a substantially rectangular shaped switch body that encloses at least two thin film electrical conductors 101b and 101c that are electrically isolated from each other in the normal state as diagrammatically shown in FIG. 1(b). The two ribbon switch conductors can be connected to an external electrical circuit at one end of the ribbon, for example, by external conductors 102a and 102b. When external pressure is applied to the switch, typically over the bead as illustrated by the arrow in FIG. 1(c), the ribbon switch compresses to force the two ribbon switch conductors together at the point of compression. To an external electric circuit connected to conductors 102a and 102b, the ribbon switch is effectively used as a normally open set of contacts (FIG. 1(b)) that transition to a closed set of contacts (FIG. 1(c)) when external pressure is applied to the switch for switch circuit activation. A limitation of this type of ribbon switch is that the effective operating direction of the switch is limited to an external force applied to the surface of the ribbon switch with the bead as shown in FIG. 1(c).
One object of the present invention is to extend the effective operating direction of a typical unidirectional ribbon switch so that the switch can be activated from multiple directions without modification of the unidirectional ribbon switch.